Motion of a Force Source over an Elastic Surface

Abstract

The motion of a variable point force P(t) over the free surface of an elastic half-space is investigated with a view toward studying wave processes in an elastic medium. Special attention is given to the determination of surface wavefronts, because the detection of the latter from seismogram data can be utilized to locate the position of a source in space and time. This type of planar problem has been investigated previously, for example, in [1], but the analytical solutions of the problem of a stationary source moving with a constant velocity have been obtained only in the limit t → ∞ without regard for the transient process of wave propagation.